Wow.
Some great pics were posted by Matador Trips.
see the rest of these amazing photos – Photo Essay: The Most Alien Landscapes on Earth
On Facebook, Jason Mortimer posted a link to this article. Thanks.
Most Alien Landscapes on Earth
gorgeous photos of Western Canada
Andreas Keller posted some personal images on a terrific German website called Canada Keller.
Here’s one sample …
see more – canada-keller.com
$80 US Parks Pass FREE from Amazon
Promotion Details
While supplies last, get a National Parks and Federal Recreation Land Annual Park Pass for free (an $80 value) when you purchase $299 or more of eligible outdoor recreation gear sold and shipped by Amazon.com. To take advantage of this offer, please review and follow the steps below:
Add eligible outdoor recreation gear to your cart totaling $299 or more (before shipping, gift wrap, and taxes) shipped and sold by Amazon.com.
Add the National Parks and Federal Recreation Land Annual Park Pass to your cart.
Proceed to checkout.
The value of the National Parks and Federal Recreation Land Annual Park Pass ($80) will be deducted at checkout. Verify that your discount has been taken to ensure that your order qualifies for this offer before clicking the “Place your Order” button.
Once you’ve placed your order, your products and the Park Pass will be shipped to you.
This offer applies only to select Amazon.com purchases. Items eligible for this offer will feature a promotional message indicating that it is an eligible item. Applies only to products sold by Amazon.com. Does not apply to products sold on our site by third-party merchants or through third-party areas such as Amazon.com Marketplace, or Auctions.
(via Trailspotting)
besthike pilgrimage to the Alps
by site editor Rick McCharles.
Jeff asks whether the Tour of Mont Blanc truly is the best hike in Europe.
He’s planning a hike in the Alps in the next couple of weeks.
And it sounds to Jeff … and to me … that the more difficult, longer High Route would be the better adventure.
I may see Jeff on the Trail. Today I start at Mont Blanc … and walk to the Matterhorn. That could be 180km … if I don’t cheat.
I’m using Chamonix to Zermatt: The Walker’s Haute Route by Kev Reynolds as my guidebook.
besthike must ajudicate, once and for all, if the High Route is better than the TMB.
That’s our mission.
… Actually, the TMB and the High Route have one common section. It may be a … tie.
hiking and biking Sportgastein
Sportgastein is the highest ski resort in the ski-intensive Gastein valley in Austria.
In the Summer it’s a lovely place to hike or bike. The best destination out of the alpine town of Bad Gastein.
A few pics from my two days there.
It was more work than I expected climbing up to Nidersachsenhaus. Great views though.
more of my Sportgastein photos on flickr
everyone’s Sportgastein photos on flickr
where is the best hike in Austria?
by site editor Rick McCharles
Though I’ve been hiking in Austria out of Bad Gastein for a week, I’m still not clear where to find the best hikes in this country. More than 60 percent of the nation is mountainous. Seems to me you would enjoy hiking almost anywhere.
A good starting point for someone hiking Austria for the first time, however, is Hohe Tauern, the largest of Austria’s six national parks.
Grossglockner 3,798m (12,460ft) is the highest peak in Austria.
Every Summer, over 1.2 million people drive an expensive toll road to see it.
I wasn’t one of them this Summer.
Instead, I tried to spy the big guy from the top of Kitzsteinhorn. That’s a very popular day trip out of Zell am See.
The Alexander Enzinger trail here is often touted a best hike in the area.
The day I rode one of the longest cable cars in the world (50min) the weather turned bleak. And I ran out of time to make it to the top station.
In fact, I must report that it was very ugly at the top of the ski lift. My least favourite place in the Alps, so far.
It was here, too, that 155 people died Nov. 11, 2000 in a tragic railway car tunnel fire.
… enough grim reporting from me …
Check out some gorgeous hiking photos of the area from Adventure4Ever. Everyone else aside from me loves this region.
Your Own Machu Picchu: Choquequirao, Peru
An excellent article on one of the best hikes in Peru was posted on Matador Trips: Discover Your Own Machu Picchu: Choquequirao, Peru
Did you visit Machu Picchu thinking you’d arrived 50 years too late? Wish you could’ve seen it before the tourist hordes and luxury hotel moved in? Then Choquequirao might be for you. …
There are very few trekkers there in comparison with Machu Picchu. We did it in 2005 and had the ruins to ourselves.
It’s a massive up and down hike. We hired a mule and mule driver to carry our packs.
The scenery is fantastic, of course.
Our biggest concern was the tiny biting flies. (Especially after their bites get infected.)
read the entire Matador article: Discover Your Own Machu Picchu: Choquequirao, Peru
Read the comments for some personal stories on continuing from Choquequirao to Machu Picchu without a guide.
P.S.
There’s one drastic mistake in the story:
From the village to the ruins and back, you’re looking at 74 km (46 miles). …
It’s nowhere near that far. … Is it?
More details and links on our besthike Choquequirao Trek information page.
future climbing trip to the Italian Dolomites?
Dreaming …
Via Ferrata are, in effect, a range of protected scrambling routes, comprised of skilfully installed fixed cables, ladders and gorge-spanning bridges, which assist ascents to high levels, from which you walk on, often to a nearby rifugio, or back to the starting point via a path.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
I wouldn’t want a guided trip. But one instructional session would be valuable.
The gear costs about $200. Helmet, and carabiners. Or you can rent it for about $10 / day.
Best timing would be the first 3wks of July. Or September.
There are plenty of good guidebooks.
#8 best hiking region in the world is …
The Italian Dolomites.
by site editor Rick McCharles
I write from Europe. This is the first adjustment to our Top 10 hiking regions since we first published them. Northern Italy has been added.
High altitude adventure and colourful sunsets. Wow! The Dolomites are far better than I expected. This was my first trip.
At besthike we rank all mountain vistas in the world against Paine in Chile, and Fitz Roy in Argentina.
The scenery in the Dolomites may be just as good. And there are far, far more stunning jagged peaks in Italy than in all of South America.
Many, many Europeans get out hiking during the Summer. Trails are crowded everywhere throughout the Dolomites and the Alps. There’s a great shared sense of community here.
Instant gratification. You can ride chair lifts up to the very tops of some of these peaks. How convenient is that? Almost anyone can find a best hike for themselves in this range.
WW I history in the Dolomites is sobering. German, Austrian and Italian soldiers were stuck digging tunnels through these mountains through several winters. This was the “Front”. Needless to say, far more young men died from the elements and falls than by fire fights. There are reminders of the Great War everywhere.
Here is the home of via ferrata (Italian for “iron road”). (In fact, our next trip to the Dolomites will be dedicated to doing some of the best of those assisted climbing routes.)
Not everything is perfect in the Dolomites. I prefer the Sierra Nevada mountains in California, overall.
In the Sierras I can put up a tent anywhere I want. Fantastic.
Unfortunately, in the Dolomites you are required to sleep in alpine buildings called Refuges. (Refugios – Italian). Their locations are stunning. Many people love them. But – personally – I prefer my tent over sleeping on the floor. Or in bunk beds.
Happily you can reach almost any place in the Dolomites by day hike. Public transportation in the valleys below is good!
The two regions – the Sierras and the Dolomites – are similar in that everywhere is a best hike.
I do like the food and drink at Refugios. Prices are regulated.
The main reason I had not hiked in Europe in 30yrs is cost. Italy can be expensive.
It’s possible to hike on the cheap. Putting up my tent in a campground in Cortina only cost 9€ (US$12.80) / night in 2009. Bread, chocolate, soft cheese and wine are inexpensive. What more do you need?
Dan & Janine Patitucci relocated from California to the Dolomites. A good site in English for inspiration. A partner offers Dolomite hiking and biking tours.
For specific information on how to hike these limestone mountains, check our Dolomites Information page.
Leave a comment if you have your own favourite hike in the Dolomites.
lesson learned: don’t hike Iran/Iraq border
Three US nationals who crossed into Iran via Iraq have been arrested, the state-owned Al-Alam television has reported.
“An informed Iranian source confirmed the arrest of three Americans after they infiltrated through the Iraqi border,” the Arabic-language television station said on Saturday.
The two men and a woman entered Iranian territory a day earlier from Iraqi Kurdistan despite repeated warnings not to do so, a Kurdish official said.
A fourth American originally with the hiking party had not joined the trek due to illness, said Beshro Ahmed, a media adviser for the general security department in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region.
He named the three as Shane Bower, Sara Short and Joshua Steel, while Shaun Gabriel Maxwell stayed behind in their hotel in the autonomous Kurdish region’s second-largest city of Sulaimaniyah.
A spokeswoman for the US embassy in Baghdad said: “We’ve seen the reports and are looking into it but can’t confirm anything at this time.” …
… The arrests came after the three visited the mountainous resort region of Ahmed Awa, about 90km northeast of Sulaimaniyah.
Ahmed said: “The [Kurdish] tourist police in the area asked them not to climb the mountains because the Iranian border was very close. …
besthike.com 